Programs and Services

Art Education: Our art education objective is to facilitate arts education in partnership with other organizations with a priority on reaching youth that are traditionally underserved, from low income households and in rural areas. These project may, in some cases, be the only link to art education that the participants will encounter and is key to YCAC’s ongoing community outreach.
	Artists in Schools: For over eight years, YCAC has successfully administered this program that provides K-12 students at three different school sites: a rural elementary, an urban elementary and a rural middle/high school. Funding from the California Arts Council’s Artists in Schools Grant enables YCAC to partner with three schools to deliver ceramic art education aligned to state standards, to those students and their families who have limited to no access to art education. .Artist in Schools Partners are Esparto Elementary, Beamer Elementary, Woodland and Delta Middle and High Schools. Clarksburg This activity is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency in partnership with Yolo County Arts Council membership and partnership schools.
		Blues in Yolo County Schools: YCAC in partnership the Sacramento Blues Society provides their program Blues in the Schools (BITS) bringing blues musicians to five Yolo County public schools. Working with music and history teachers, a lecture followed by live musical performances were conducted at five area high schools. Students were able to hear first hand a distinctly American form of music and engage in a musical jam session with professional blues players. This program is partially supported by Target Distributions Center, the City of West Sacramento and the members of Yolo County Arts Council.
	Taller Arte Del Nuevo Amanecer Partnership (TANA): YCAC provided the supplies for this new community-based arts workshop developed by the UC Davis Chicana/o Studies program. The program will be available to youth and adults focusing on aspects of Latin culture through arts education, mentoring, and community empowerment.
		Winters Shakespeare Workshop: This is a 5-week summer program for teens in Winters resulting in a free community theatrical production. Teenagers and adult volunteers work with professional directors, choreographers, musicians and production crews to present a unique adaptation of a Shakespeare play. YCAC is a major sponsor of this program.
	Yolo County Arts Scholars - Innerspark Art Exhibition and Awards Ceremony: YCAC annually hosts this exhibition and awards ceremony showcasing High school art students from all 5 school districts to compete statewide for an invitation to the prestigious Summer School for the Arts Program at Innerspark – the California State Summer Schools for the Arts (CSSSA). InnerSpark’s special summer session offers a head start to talented teenagers who wish to pursue careers in the arts and entertainment industry. InnerSpark has trained more than 8,000 students with its rigorous pre-professional training programs in animation, creative writing, dance, film and video, music, theatre, and visual arts over the past seventeen years. The sessions take place on the campus of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Each year, YCAC delivers these awards to an impressive number of Yolo County students and honor the Colors of Woodland Scholarship students from Woodland High. YCAC is honored to celebrate their accomplishments at this event.
Congressional Art Show: There is a rich tradition of artistic excellence in the First Congressional District and Yolo County. Each year, Yolo County Arts Council works with Representatives from First Congressional District to encourage high school students from all over Yolo County to submit their work and showcase their artistic talent, which includes exhibiting and judging all of the entries. Winning artwork from each Congressional District is exhibited in the Capitol and featured in Yolo County Arts Council newsletter and website. The impressive quality of students’ artwork that is submitted to this annual art competition inspires confidence in the talent and enthusiasm of our county’s youth and supports the need to further art education. This program is delivered in partnership with Congressman Mike Thompson and Staff. Contact Elly Fairclough Yolo County District Representative for Congressman Mike Thompson 530-662-5272
	Storytelling through Art: "Storytelling through Art" is a multicultural art enrichment program, designed to reach out to four geographically and culturally distinct elementary schools located in Yolo County, an enhancement of the Yolo County Art’s Council’s existing school partnerships program. Storytelling will deliver a standards-aligned art program to students providing them the opportunity to gain artistic confidence as well as opportunity to develop, apply and fine tune artistic skills, while modeling concepts for teachers on the integration of visual and performing art into school curriculum. The "Storytelling through Art" program emphasis will be interpreting stories through drawing, painting, ceramics and dance from different cultures, including the Hawaiian, Latino, African and Cuban cultures. Students and their teachers will learn more about these four disciplines from Yolo County artists hired to teach based on their strong professional, performance or exhibition background, teaching experience, and a desire to give back to their communities through art. These artists will work with schools and classroom teachers to integrate their artistic knowledge into the grade level curriculum through interpretive storytelling. This program is funded by a grant from the Frank H. and Eva B. Buck Foundation for three years in partnership with YCAC partnership schools and fundraising efforts.
		Exceptional Art for Exceptional Children: This program will bring a standards aligned ceramic art program to the deaf and hearing impaired and the emotionally disturbed special needs students of the Yolo County office of Education special education program. An artist in residence will teach students with the aid of a paraeducator. The program will bring ceramic art to deaf and hearing-impaired elementary students, and severely emotionally disturbed students – at the elementary, middle and high school levels. For these exceptional students, this art experience may be one of the few ways that they may experience a sense of ownership. They will be able to convey meaning in a way that does not depend on words; that may enhance receptivity to their overall learning experience. Funding for ceramic art supplies was provided by Ronald McDonald House Charities® Northern California in collaboration with local McDonald's Owner/Operators and Pacific Coast Building Products Foundation.
For more information about our education programs or if you are artist interested in teaching, please contact YCAC Art Education Division at arteducation@yoloarts.org To Support Arts Education for Kids….. You’ll Need a License... Proceeds for the sale of this special license plate directly support arts education programs through the California Arts Council For more information call California Arts Council at 1-800-201-6201 or visit the CAC website at www.cac.ca.gov